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Train noise deafening residents, economic development

Commerce City has many quiet zones like the one at 96th Avenue and State Highway 2. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

Nothing unites communities and politicians like the lonely wail of a train whistle.

That is especially true when those whistles and horns blare day and night in neighborhoods, killing sleep and the potential for much-needed economic development.

"You have rail traffic sounding off at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. anymore, like clockwork," Loveland Mayor Cecil Gutierrez said. "If we're going to add and increase the density of the housing in the downtown area, which is one of our goals, then how do you deal with that train horn noise in the middle of the night?"

Trains rumbling through quiet zones in Commerce City are not allowed to use their horns. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

Many other Front Range communities face a similar problem blamed on a 2005 Federal Railroad Administration rule change. It requires locomotive engineers to begin sounding train horns at least 15 seconds — and no more than 20 seconds — in advance of all at-grade rail crossings with public streets and roads.

The horns must be no more than 110 decibels — louder than a jackhammer or an Anthrax concert — and must sound in a standard pattern of two long, one short and one long blast that is repeated until the lead locomotive or lead cab occupies the grade crossing.

"Before all of this, engineers had a discretion when and where they could sound their horns," said Gerry Horak, a Fort Collins City Council member. "That option has been taken away, and now we are stuck with a heckuva problem."

Fort Collins is one of several Front Range communities weighing spending millions of dollars to create "quiet zones," where trains could pass safely without disturbing the peace.

But quieting train noise under Federal Railroad Administration rules requires communities to show that the revised crossings will prevent vehicles from entering while a locomotive is coming through.

Signage at 96th Avenue and State Highway 2 in Commerce City. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

BNSF Railway spokesman Andy Williams said the railroad wants to be part of any quiet-zone discussions.

At-grade railroad crossing collisions nationwide declined 82 percent between 1980 and 2012, according to the Association of American Railroads.

So far, six Colorado communities have put in quiet zones, including four in Commerce City, four in Arvada, and one each in Monument, Fort Morgan, Winter Park and El Paso County.

The costs can vary wildly.

In Fort Collins — where both the BNSF and the Union Pacific Railroad operate — the cost of building quiet zones at 15 crossings could reach $5 million. But that figure doesn't include the price of acquiring right of way and other construction costs.

Building quiet zones at all of Longmont's 21 at-grade crossings would cost $6 million, said Shawn Lewis, assistant city manager.

It's an expensive option that Longmont may have to take, if only to quell worries about excessive train noise as it attempts to redevelop heavy industrial areas along the south edge of downtown, Lewis said.

The city is trying to encourage mixed-use redevelopment near the former Butterball turkey processing plant at First Avenue and Main Street, but it has been a hard sell.

"We've met with prospective developers, and two of the companies have expressed interest," Lewis said. "But they've also got concerns about train noise that would take place along Main Street and all the intersections in that vicinity. They just said that would hinder residential development in that area."

Commerce City implemented the state's first quiet zone in 2008 and has spent $10 million on quiet- zone improvements, including $8 million at the East 96th Avenue and Colorado 2 intersection.

That intersection didn't go completely silent, however. The city was required to also install an automated horn system because the rail crossing is too close to the state highway to put in other safety measures, said Commerce City spokeswoman Michelle Halstead.

Commerce City decided to spend on the quiet zones because train noise is a consistent complaint by residents, Halstead said. "In nearly every survey we do about quality of life issues, train noise is either at the top of the list, or near the top."

She said there have been no reported collisions in quiet zones.

Faced with the high cost of dealing with the noise, some communities are looking to the federal government for help.

Windsor, with a population of 20,000, has 13 railroad crossings in a roughly 4-mile stretch.

The Great Western Railway tracks through town service important regional employers in the Great Western Industrial Park, including Halliburton Co., Vestas Wind Systems and its supplier Hexcel Corp., the ethanol-biofuel plant Front Range Energy, and Musket Corp., which runs a crude-oil transfer station.

But all that new rail activity prompted Windsor officials to ask for a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant to establish quiet zones.

Windsor was able to prove train noise was detrimental to the town's quality of life and landed a $2.7 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant.

"This means we will get a little bit of that quality of life back," Mayor John Vazquez said.

Meanwhile, a coalition of mayors and county commissioners along the U.S. 36 corridor and U.S. 287 between Boulder and Westminster have put pressure on the Colorado congressional delegation to try to have the train noise rules relaxed.

"We support efforts to improve safety at railway-highway crossings, and at the same time we want to improve the quality of life for the people who live and conduct business in our communities," former Westminster Mayor Nancy McNally said.

The community complaints pushed Colorado's U.S. senators and representatives — both Republicans and Democrats — to lobby the Federal Railroad Administration this year for a relaxation of the train horn rules. The railroad administration will hold hearings next year to consider the request.

"That's all we ask," Loveland's Gutierrez said, "just a little common sense."

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